“I JUST DON’T LIKE IT,” Lucas tells Dawn, as they hike.

They’re still below the tree line, steadily dropping altitude. In the distance, Dawn can see the river toward which Warden is leading them.

The river that leads to the highway.

It’s late afternoon now. The sky’s getting darker. Sooner or later, they’re going to have to make camp, but Warden keeps pushing them. Chewing up distance.

Warden’s in a hurry, and the whole Pack is struggling to keep up.

“I keep thinking about Alex,” Lucas says. They’re a ways back from everyone else; nobody can hear them. “Like, how does it make sense that he fell off that cliff?”

Dawn shrugs. “Evan is probably right,” she says. “He just got lost in the dark and went in the wrong direction.”

“You’d have to be pretty stupid to mess up that badly,” Lucas replies. “Do you really believe that?”

Dawn says nothing. Keeps hiking. Aware of Lucas’s eyes on her.

“No,” Lucas says. “You don’t.” He pauses. “You’re just too scared to admit it.”

(He’s right.)

(Dawn’s freaking terrified.)

Before she can say anything, though, someone screams from the trail up ahead.

And Lucas and Dawn glance at each other, and then they start running.